Exhaust Flange Disaster

[Steve Brookes]

On removing my cat to do some work on the engine tins and tappet covers, I found that the bolt holes on the heat exchanger flange had disintegrated! What a headache! My good friends at Unit 11 Warrington are looking into fabricating a new flange to fit to the heat exchanger, especially since the rest of it is in VGC. In the mean time I've put an ad in the wanted section to see if anyone has got a good condition left heat exchanger that they have cluttering up the garage? Let me know if you have anything. []

 

[vitesse]

Steve,
I know this is no help at all,but when I had the 964 service at John's,he offered me a virtually brand new heat exchanger set off a another customers'car as mine was losing it's flanges like yours & some of the tin brackets,for fitting next time.Cost me £450 cash,but I need it myself-least gives you an idea on price.
Colin.

 

[Steve Brookes]

ORIGINAL: VITESSE

Steve,
I know this is no help at all,but when I had the 964 service at John's,he offered me a virtually brand new heat exchanger set off a another customers'car as mine was losing it's flanges like yours & some of the tin brackets,for fitting next time.Cost me £450 cash,but I need it myself-least gives you an idea on price.
Colin.

Thanks Colin, Jonny mentioned they sold a good one to you and as you know the key is find a good one now that they're getting on. I'm hopeful their idea for a fabricated flange comes off which could end up benefitting a lot of us.

All the best

Steve

 

[fhauser]

Hi Steve
If you wanted to reuse the flange
Make a template out of paper marking your hole centres
Get the flange holes repaired by welding
Grind the face with a hand grinder
Place template onto flange and centre pop thru
Redrill,small drill first then drill to size
This would make a cheap good repair
Hope this helps Fred

 

[911 Turbo LE]

Hi Steve,
Try Richard http://www.turbothomas.com/porsche.html He had flanges in stock. He fabricated an exhaust for me, I'm sure he could help, and very reasonable .

 

[Mjonzo]

having just gone through this same pain as Steve, i can say that i think Vitesse got ripped off ! £450 ?? I just bought mine for a whole lot less than that and even the garage offered to sell me a very good one for £200 a couple of weeks back. They also said you should be able to pick one up in the £100-150 range. Try Douglas valley or other Porsche dismantlers perhaps ?

 

[vitesse]

Steve,
Once It has been put on the car,I intend to repair the original by getting laser cut flanges & welding them on plus replacing any tin bracketry,as the stainless steel heat exchangers should be OK & the exhaust headers should be also OK.One advantage of owning an engineering co.quote ORIGINAL: Steve Brookes

ORIGINAL: VITESSE

Steve,
I know this is no help at all,but when I had the 964 service at John's,he offered me a virtually brand new heat exchanger set off a another customers'car as mine was losing it's flanges like yours & some of the tin brackets,for fitting next time.Cost me £450 cash,but I need it myself-least gives you an idea on price.
Colin.

Thanks Colin, Jonny mentioned they sold a good one to you and as you know the key is find a good one now that they're getting on. I'm hopeful their idea for a fabricated flange comes off which could end up benefitting a lot of us.

All the best

Steve
[/quote]

 

[Steve Brookes]

ORIGINAL: 911 Turbo LE

Hi Steve,
Try Richard http://www.turbothomas.com/porsche.html He had flanges in stock. He fabricated an exhaust for me, I'm sure he could help, and very reasonable .

Wow! That sounds (and looks great). I'll pass Richard's details onto the Unit 11 guys. Getting a flange off the shelf would be just the ticket.

 

[Steve Brookes]

I'm pleased to report that the exhaust issue has now been remedied. The boys at Unit 11 Warrington got a new flange fabricated which is a few mm thicker than the old one. This allowed them to saw off the old flange and weld on the new so that the same spacing was retained (important to ensure that the cat could be bolted on without stressing the exhaust system). A complete new heat exchanger for that side would have cost £2,000 (and a good used one up to half that). The all in cost from Unit 11 to make and fit the new flange was a tenth of that . I'll take some pics of the fix when I have time, in the mean time here's the old flange now separated from the car:

p.s. While looking into the problem I came across a new pair of heat exchangers that another PCGB member has for sale. In the end I didn't need them but if anyone is looking for something like this let me know (he'll sell the pair for considerable less than they would cost you direct).

 

[Steve Brookes]

To complete this story, here are the pics of the new flange:

 

[Scamper]

Looks alright... a bit Heath-Robinson..but if it saves a couple of grand who cares??..I know mine are looking a bit dodgy!!

 

[vitesse]

ORIGINAL: Scamper

Looks alright... a bit Heath-Robinson..but if it saves a couple of grand who cares??..I know mine are looking a bit dodgy!!

That's a bit unkind-there's nothing -Heath Robinson about it at all-the flange is thicker to compensate for the cut-off amount of the pipe-it's larger AF giving more tolerance for the hole PCD & avoid what happened to the original-in the jpeg,the weld looks OK-it's very difficult to weld internally at that diameter particularly 2 different material thickness's with one being old & heat cycle aged.
Well done Unit 11,a sensible & economic solution for Steve.
Colin.